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There's nothing wrong with having money. It enables you to do a lot of good in the world.
...Summer reading list.
Greg Mankiw offers a summer reading list full of economics books. One of them, I plan to read, is Eat the Rich by PJ O‘Rourke. Here’s a beautiful passage from the book:
"The central drama of economics is always the struggle between the past and the future, between the capitalist drive to invest in new ventures and the socialist impulse to preserve existing jobs, businesses, and concentrations of wealth." —George Gilder, Recapturing the Spirit of Enterprise, p. 183“…take the real-world example of two kids who graduate from college with honors. One is an admirable idealist. The other is on the make. The idealist joins Friends of the Earth and chains himself to a sequoia. The sharpie goes to work for an investment bank selling fishy derivatives and makes $500,000 a year. Even assuming that the selfish young banker cheats the IRS - and he will - he’ll end up paying $100,000 a year in taxes: income taxes, property taxes, sales tax, etc. While the admirable idealist has saved one tree (if the logging company doesn’t own bolt cutters), the pirate in a necktie has contributed to society $100,000 worth of schools, roads, and U.S. Marines, not to mention Interior Department funding sufficient to save any number of trees and the young idealist chained thereto.
And if the soulless yuppie cheats the IRS so well that he ends up keeping the whole half million? That cash isn’t going to sit in his cuff link box. Whether spent or saved, the money winds up invested somewhere, and maybe that investment leads to the creation of the twenty-first century’s equivalent of the moldboard plow, the microchip, or the mocha latte. Society wins. Wealth brings great benefits to the world. Rich people are heroes. They don’t usually mean to be, but that’s their problem, not ours.”
There's nothing wrong with having money. It enables you to do a lot of good in the world.
I believe the point was that wealth is good, for everyone, period. You're more of a drain on society if you waste an education saving one tree than is a crooked wealthy person.
“…take the real-world example of two kids who graduate from college with honors. One is an admirable idealist. The other is on the make. The idealist joins Friends of the Earth and chains himself to a sequoia. The sharpie goes to work for an investment bank selling fishy derivatives and makes $500,000 a year. Even assuming that the selfish young banker cheats the IRS - and he will - he’ll end up paying $100,000 a year in taxes: income taxes, property taxes, sales tax, etc. While the admirable idealist has saved one tree (if the logging company doesn’t own bolt cutters), the pirate in a necktie has contributed to society $100,000 worth of schools, roads, and U.S. Marines, not to mention Interior Department funding sufficient to save any number of trees and the young idealist chained thereto.
And if the soulless yuppie cheats the IRS so well that he ends up keeping the whole half million? That cash isn’t going to sit in his cuff link box. Whether spent or saved, the money winds up invested somewhere, and maybe that investment leads to the creation of the twenty-first century’s equivalent of the moldboard plow, the microchip, or the mocha latte. Society wins. Wealth brings great benefits to the world. Rich people are heroes. They don’t usually mean to be, but that’s their problem, not ours.”
Only Yoni would find cheating on his taxes 'admirable'. If anyone reading this forum works for the IRS, lets keep that one in mind.
No, I just find tree-hugging worthless.
Only Yoni would find cheating on his taxes 'admirable'. If anyone reading this forum works for the IRS, lets keep that one in mind.
So all environmentalism is worthless?
Oh, and I'd welcome an audit. My family hes to our church and still gives to non-religous charities.
Only Yoni would find cheating on his taxes 'admirable'. If anyone reading this forum works for the IRS, lets keep that one in mind.
So, yeah, notify the IRS. Oh wait! I have a close friend who is an IRS Agent, I'll report myself.
More of less. You find them worthwhile?
What is on your reading list?
A little bit of everything, including some of your post.
Hmmmm, let's see . . . people who want to preserve this planet that was given to us by God and is being destroyed by us humans . . . yeah, we should kill all those "green" selfish mother ers.
I haven't seen any destruction of the planet. And I didn't
say kill all those "green". Just ignore the out of them,
they are so full themselves or just want the money for their
so called "research" or "protection" of whatever. You know
like little Beatles in caves that need to be studied.
No, I'm not advocating they be killed. Just not allowed to interfere with the economic engine that is supporting their happy asses.
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